Indian-origin astronaut who had 3 missions, 608 days in space has THIS connection with a village in Gujarat

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is retired after a remarkable 27 years of her career. She has done amazing things in space and is a hero to many. She is also very proud of her family’s roots in a small village ‘Jhulasan’ in Gujarat, India.

NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams recently announced her retirement after a stellar career spanning 27 years working with NASA as an astronaut. Officially retired on December 27th, 2025, Williams’ career totals over 650 days in space over three missions to the ISS (International space station).

Sunita Williams is famous around the world for her work in space. She is also well-known for supporting women and people from India who want to work with rockets and planes. When she retired, fans from all over the world showed her a lot of love and respect.

Who is Sunita Williams? Early Life and Educational Background

Born on September 19th, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio to father Deepak Pandya (a Gujarati-origin Indian-American neuroscientist) and mother Bonnie Pandya (who is Slovene), Williams grew up in Needham, Massachusetts. She went on to graduate from the United States Naval Academy in 1987 with a Bachelor’s degree in physical science before receiving her Master’s degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995.

Williams began her career as a helicopter pilot in the United States Navy, flying for over 3,000 hours in more than 30 different types of aircraft and accumulating multiple overseas tours of duty.

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The Stellar Career of Sunita Williams: 322 Days, 9 Spacewalks, and a Final Nine-Month Journey

Joining NASA in 1998 as part of their astronaut program, Williams would go on to spend three decades working for NASA before announcing her retirement last month. Flying on Space Shuttle missions as well as missions to the International Space Station (ISS), Williams became one of NASA’s most accomplished astronauts by today’s standards.

Logging 330 cumulative days in space and completing 9 spacewalks, Williams also holds one of the longest spacewalking records by any woman astronaut at 62 hours and 23 minutes.

Williams’ third and final mission to space was initially intended to last 7 days as part of a test flight for Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule. Launching to the ISS in 2024, mechanical problems prevented Williams from returning to Earth as planned and forced her to stay in space for over nine months.

With NASA officially announcing her retirement from her astronaut duties last month, here’s what you should know about Williams’ connection to India.

From the Stars to Her Roots: A Village Welcomes Their Daughter Home

As NASA fans across the world mourned the retirement of Williams, villagers in her father’s ancestral home in India celebrated what many considered to be the astronaut’s “return home”. While living in India for only a few years before moving back to the United States with his family, Deepak Pandya still had family members living in his hometown of Jhulasan village in Gujarat’s Mehsana district.

With a population of just 7,000 people, villagers in Jhulasan eagerly awaited Williams’ launches to space and regularly met to watch her return from missions on TV screens. When Williams returned to Earth at the end of her final mission in 2026, the villagers of Jhulasan celebrated her homecoming by decorating their village and watching her splashdown in one of the largest outdoor gatherings the village had ever seen.

Williams herself traveled to Jhulasan twice before, with visits taking place in 2007 and 2013.

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The Times Of Bengal